A well-known Bitcoin entrepreneur has raised as much as $170,000 for the legal fund to defend Ross Ulbricht, the suspect that the government has identified as the mastermind of the Silk Road online drug marketplace.

On July 5, American businessman Roger Vertweeted that he would donate $10 per retweet to Ulbricht’s defense fund. As of this writing, the message had been retweeted over 17,000 times. Ver has invested in Blockchain.info and Bitpay among others in the past, and he is sometimes known by his nickname "Bitcoin Jesus" for his evangelism of the famed cryptocurrency.

Early Monday morning, Ver put a cap on the donation. “More retweets welcome, but the donation limit has been reached.”

Ver did not specify what this limit was, but he did elaborate to Ars by e-mail. "I don’t have or want to donate $100 million if the tweet has 10 million retweets," he wrote. "I am sure the final amount raised will be well into the six [US dollar] figure. I’ll be working out the details with the family or lawyer some time this week or next."

Ver went on to discuss Silk Road, indicating that he believes the libertarian ideals of the site were laudable.

“I think that each individual owns their own body, and has the absolute right to put whatever they want into it,” he said.

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“The police, judges, and jail guards who lock people in cages for ingesting substances without the permission of strangers are the ones committing evil and need to stop. If Ross Ulbricht is [Dread Pirate Roberts, the persona of the leader of Silk Road] and helped facilitate these voluntary interactions, he is a hero for helping provide the technology that allowed peaceful people to ignore the violent threats from strangers calling themselves politicians and law enforcement. If Ross is falsely accused and was not [Dread Pirate Roberts], then he deserves the best defense money can buy. Either way, he deserves the support of anyone who is opposed to the war on drugs.”

Ver also linked to a July 4 message from Ulbricht that the suspect sent to Porcfest, a libertarian festival held in New Hampshire each summer. “One thing I’ve learned since beginning my tour of the federal criminal justice system is that these guys are not all-powerful,” Ulbricht said. “They can be beaten and precedent can be set that will limit their ability to infringe on our rights.”

The Free Ross website, run by his family and supporters, says that they’re about 90 percent of the way toward raising $100,000 for his defense fund. Lyn Ulbricht, Ross’ mother, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ross Ulbricht's criminal trial is scheduled to begin in New York on November 3, 2014.